Okay UBER, we should talk balance :D

I love how this thread is titled as if no one has ever talked balance with Uber before.

One possible direction is to make the laser damage the planet that fired it. This would make some sense and give the firer an extra downside. Who's to say that revived high energy technology would work perfectly, first try. Additionally it probably wasn't designed to support surface activity while firing. If you fire a gun with ants crawling all over the barrel it is not going to go well for the ants. Possible effects are not limited to planet damage. Perhaps random spots on the surface would explode or everything on the planet could be disabled for a time.

I realize that I have gone off topic because I do not expect this to be implemented at this point. It may be an interesting idea for a mod though.

I love how you said ants.

*bump* Oh woops, sorry I didn't see you there, gorgeous. And your name is? "Relevant Again"? How quaint, hey can I take your number?

Metal planet that can kill all other planets for 200.000 is op? I don't see how since any planet except gas can destroy all other planets for 40.000 if the system allows it. It seems to me the metal planet definitly isn't OP unless you make a system where it is. It seems that mapmakers have been making maps where the metalplanets are too well placed, and probably too small to properly invade and without any proper counters available. No real reason to change the metalplanet, just a good reason to make better systems.

not one. infinity.

infinity is always OP no matter the context.

What infinity? You mean lasershots? Im talking about burning planets up entirely into the sun you can do that just as often as shooting the laser (as many as there are planets) for only 1 time 40k instead of 200k. Remember 1 planet is 1 explosion max no matter how you annihilate. So based on the system, halleys are better then cathalyst.

In larger systems, it'd also give us a tense endgame scenario, where players who weren't taken out in the first shot desperately scramble to nuke/smash/invade the metal planet. Halleys might become a bit OP in the case of a cooldown though, as it becomes much easier to use a smash to wreck the laser in the window where it can't shoot you down, and the Halley is still very cheap compared to 5 catalysts.

I think instead of an arbitrary cooldown timer, each shot should take energy. Which, unless you have an entire gas giant covered in jigs, would require a lot of e-storage.

Don't forget the people who put 90000 metal points on the metal planet. It's like gee, i wonder which planet is most important.

Just a reminder here: A Cat NEVER costs 200k. I know that's the number on the price tag, but in reality, you have to take into account all the antinukes, umbrellas, and orbital units used to defend the Cats. The total could EASILY top 400k if you go for full turtle. This alone makes the laser completely impractical to use in a *normal* game (no stupid stalemates or the like). You'll never *develop* to the point of using the laser - you'll always use it as a last resort, when all the other, more practical measures have failed.

The only exception, of course, is the casual game, where folks aren't playing all out to win.

In the interest of bringing the Catalysts down to a level of practicality in the late game, they need a nerf and an opportunity cost decrease. Right now they sit at the UNOBTAINABLE GOD WEAPON category. Let's bring that down a bit.

A recharge time (two minutes sounds fair to start) and halving the cost of the Cats would go a long way towards making it way less gimmicky.

Yes, I think the best designed systems are those where the metal planet has little to no actual metal, is of medium-to-large size, and is in a distant orbit.. This means you must not only hold it, but also hold your home planet to fund the catalysts. Makes for a more dynamic battle. So long as good system design is respected the cata is absolutely not OP.